US directed repression of the Afghan people aided
by its brutal Northern Alliance regional "warlord" proxies
has led to the beginning of a growing insurrection against an intolerable
situation that's unsustainable. It has the upper hand in Iraq and is
fast becoming more of the same in Afghanistan

Lama Abdullah was the youngest victim of the Marwahin
23. Ali Kemal's wife Sabaha was in her eighties. At least six of the
children were between the ages of one and 10. The Israeli helicopter
pilot's name is, of course, unknown

The big global warming story isn't Americans finally
accepting an inconvenient truth. Al Gore makes a brilliant presentation,
but the big story is the undeniable impact of a severe, early onset,
global heating which only paid deniers now refuse to accept

The history of Ladakh has a tradition of outsiders
dividing Ladakh and ruled over us, if we not resolve this conflict it
would be first in the history of Ladakh where Ladakhis are dividing
each other and putting everything on the plate for outsiders to rule
and govern us. I am sure we will not let it happen, more significantly
our dear leaders will not let it happen. Let's collectively eliminate
the fear factor for ever…

Gram Udhayam is a great reflection of the power
and vision of Dalits all over India. Their achievement would definitely
help the communities living in other parts of the country to think about
their self and work for a socio cultural revolution that would free
from the bondage of the caste based discrimination

Fossil fuels, metals, and electricity are all intricately
connected. Each is inaccessible - on the modern scale - without the
other two. Any two will vanish without the third. If we imagine a world
without fossil fuels, we must imagine a world without metals or electricity.
What we imagine, at that point, is a society far more primitive than
the one to which we are accustomed

The pathology of American culture is as ubiquitous
as its strip-mall ugliness. It is abundantly evident, in almost every
aspect of contemporary life.To resist, we must cast off the fear of
being an outcast. I remain hopeful: There is yet a molecule or two of
the wild wolf left within us cringing, cloying Toy Poodles

If Gandhi found a law permitting detention without
trail by a foreign government abhorrent enough to launch a nationwide
general strike, what is America doing when similar laws are being passed
by its own government?

Stan Goff and William T. Hathaway shine light into
the military's heart of darkness. These two defectors from the elite
guard have become effective opponents of the empire they once served,
and their example will help other soldiers to rebel and tell their stories

Late one evening, a young man of 34 was found hanging
from the ceiling of his home in Bhopal. His name was Sunil Verma, the
date, July 26, 2006. More than 21 years earlier, he had lost his parents
and five siblings in the gas massacre on December 2, 1984.He died wearing
a T-shirt declaring 'No More Bhopals'. At the time he took his life,
no one had been punished for the crimes of the Bhopal massacre. With
him died, perhaps, even the hope for justice

But why should we think Israel is acting in good
faith, even if in bad temper, in destroying Gaza’s power station?
Why should we assume it was a hot-headed over-reaction rather than a
coldly calculated deed?

The ongoing war of words between US President George
W. Bush and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, coupled with deluded western
media misconceptions or intentional misrepresentations of the true nature
of the escalating conflict, can be utterly misleading, and must promptly
be brought back to their sensible parameters of analysis

The wide gap between U.S. President George W. Bush’s
words and deeds vis-à-vis Islam and Muslims doomed to failure
his speech at the United nations on September 19, which could neither
appease Muslims nor pacify the ever growing Islamophobia

So we are left yet again to ponder the meaning
of Bush's words while he eyes Iran and checks options on his table and
paws through his tool box with the hallucinatory goal of killing his
way to glory. A fool. With a fool's goal

While the deranged chicken-hawks who "lead"
the US continue their efforts to wage another unprovoked war of aggression,
this time against Iran, what's left of their already overstretched military
continues to be bled in Iraq

According to a report by 16 U.S. Spy agencies leaked
to The New York Times, the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has
helped create more global terrorism and energize jihadist ideology throughout
the world since the 9/11 attacks

Let us be very straight. The promotion of “al-Qaeda”
as the face of the Iraqi legitimate Resistance is a fraud. Nor was the
U.S. invaded Iraq to “liberate” the Iraqi people and “build
democracy” true. Equally fraud is the argument that U.S. troops
are in Iraq to “prevent civil war” and fight “terrorism”

As stated so clearly in the Declaration of Independence,
the American people have every right to write a new declaration of independence
from the illegitimate, unlawful, and unconstitutional acts of their
rulers. Such rights are inalienable and absolute in all people. Rights
cannot be altered or abolished; governments can

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s revelation
that a top US official said Pakistan would be bombed “back to
the stone age” if Islamabad didn’t break its ties with the
Taliban and provide logistical support to the US conquest of Afghanistan
is yet another example of the mobster methods that have come to characterize
US diplomacy, especially under the Bush administration

So the next time you are downing a refreshing can
of soda, I urge you to resist Coke’s $2.4 billion mind fuck and
think about thirsty human beings drinking cadmium-contaminated water,
pesticide cocktails, “fertilizer” derived from toxic sludge,
decaying teeth, corpulence, child diabetics, murder for hire, police
batons cracking skulls, children suffering the horrors of child labor,
and the growing trend toward global fascism

Those who create a fascinating world of ‘great’
social cohesion outside West Bengal should try to sneak into the den
and report independently on the conditions of Dalit in West Bengal.
Hiding the pathetic condition of Dalits in West Bengal and particularly
that of the scavengers is the bigger shame for India

The planet's temperature has climbed to levels
not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants
and animals, researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences

In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam,
the Pope asserts that the prophet Muhammad ordered his followers to
spread their religion by the sword. According to the Pope, that is unreasonable,
because faith is born of the soul, not of the body. How can the sword
influence the soul?

With the U.S. intelligence community agreed that
the invasion and occupation of Iraq have made this country less safe
from terrorist threats, President George W. Bush appears now to be facing
a growing revolt among top military commanders who say U.S. ground forces
are stretched close to the breaking point

Abe’s emphasis on his postwar birth was to
send a message that his government will no longer be hampered by the
legacy of Japan’s militarist past. He has explicitly ruled out
any apology for Japan’s wartime atrocities in Asia

Will the U.S. soon need to activate Selective Service
System plans for a military draft if open hostilities break out with
Iran and Syria?There are signs that for many possible reasons, there
are people and groups in Washington and elsewhere who desire a wider
war - war between the U.S. and Iran and Syria - World War III.If they
have their way, the necessity for a military draft would become a real
possibility

Has anybody else noticed the increasing popularity
of Australia’s other great sport? We may be oblivious to its presence
since its promoters have yet to agree on its name. Not sure what I am
talking about? I’ll give you a clue: politicians love it, ‘intellectuals’
champion it, the media can’t get enough of it, and the public
is falling for it. Oh, of course, Muslim bashing!

In a recent article on this site criticising Human
Rights Watch for singling out Hizbullah rather than Israel for harsher
condemnation of its military actions during the Lebanon war, I made
sure to quote the organisation fairly and accurately before seeking
to refute its arguments. Unfortunately, in a response published on Counterpunch,
HRW’s Middle East policy director, Sarah Leah Whitson, did not
return the favour. Possibly realising that her case was weak, she decided
to paraphrase my argument instead, misrepresenting it, and only then
try to rebut it

The New York Times reports that a National Intelligent
Estimate (NIE) from April 2006 concludes the Iraq War has actually increased
Islamic radicalism. You don't say! Americans want to know why our bombing,
devastating and occupying a country that has done us no harm would inflame
its people

Perhaps that's just how Maria and the Democrats
play ball. They attempt to buy out their opposition and support them
financially if they forfeit. How's that for embracing the democratic
process? Fortunately for the antiwar movement there are candidates like
Aaron Dixon who refuse to surrender

What those surprises might be range from announcing
the capture or death of Osama bin Laden to a surgical strike on Iran's
fledgling nuclear program to ignoring a possible major terrorist attack
against the U.S. -- or, conversely, announcing that they've foiled a
frightening urban bomb plot. Or all of the above, and more

The causes for the evolution and practice of such
rituals can be many but one of the significant reasons I believe is
the inaccessibility of the Gompas in Ladakh. I think the Gompa must
be located in the heart of the village not on the hills

This image of Islam in contemporary Kashmir is
clearly limited, selective and highly sensationalized. While it is true
that the radical Islamist fringe does exist in Kashmir, support for
its ultimate agenda among most Kashmiris is limited. The lack of overt
and vocal opposition to such radicals must not be taken as necessarily
implying widespread support of their agenda of a state based on their
peculiar version of Islam

In May 1987 policemen belonging to the Uttar Pradesh
Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) shot dead 42 Muslim men, most of
them youths, including some minors, from the Hashimpura locality in
Meerut. The massacre occurred in the wake of the communal riots that
broke out in Meerut in April that year after the Rajiv Gandhi government
decided to open the gates of the Babri Masjid to allow Hindus to worship
therein

As US and Iraqi security forces hint at a series
of trenches, moats and berms to cordon off the capital Baghdad in hopes
of stemming the daily violence, many Iraqis are shrugging the measures
off. Security measures come and go, they say, but the daily death rates
continue to increase

Students are deceived if ground truths about military
training, war and inadequate veteran care are withheld from them. And
if images of real war are inappropriate to display to young people,
then it is inappropriate to recruit young people to fight

It takes great courage to venture onto the editorial
pages of the Wall Street Journal - especially on Fridays when Mary Anastasia
O'Grady's Americas column appears. This is a woman who surely will have
a serious back problem one day resulting from her permanent position
of genuflection to the most extreme far-right she pledges allegiance
to

Next week's meeting in Beijing on energy security
involving the United States, China, Japan, India and South Korea is
a dramatic manifestation of the new battle plans and war doctrines that
Washington is conceptualizing. The conclave in Beijing, significantly,
leaves out Western Europe

The adjustment and structural reform policies of
the IMF and the World Bank and now the strategic plans of the IADB and
the CAF are part of this perpetual war. A war whose purpose is conquest,
territorial control, domination and pillage, as in any war

The CDRM, which seized power on September 19, has
already imposed measures that drastically curtail democratic rights.
The generals have imposed martial law, abrogated the constitution, dissolved
both houses of the national parliament and shut down the Constitutional
Court. All political activities and any public gatherings of more than
five people have been banned

Although limited in number, the dissidents, by
standing up, are punching a few holes in the glowing picture painted
by the mainstream Thai media that the junta has universal support for
its power grab on the night of Sep. 19 to rid Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra from office

However, while on the subject of 'fidayeen elements'
or Islamist militants, it is striking how general discourse on terrorism
in India, as elsewhere as well, is now so heavily lopsided, focusing,
as it does, largely on militant acts committed by some Muslims. Terrorism
in India is now talked about almost wholly in the context of fringe
Islamist or Muslim militant groups, whereas similar acts of terrorism
by other actors, including the state or by Hindutva outfits, are rarely
described as such in the 'mainstream' media or by politicians

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Madura was
prevented by airport officials from departing the US from JFK airport
on a commercial flight on Saturday following the UN General Assembly
meeting. He said officials demanded he surrender his ticket and boarding
pass claiming his name was on a so-called "red list." He was
then illegally detained, taken to a small room and strip-searched despite
his strong protests after having clearly identified who he was

There are two winners, at least in the short run:
the Bush government has shown great skill in leveraging the very fear
and terror concocted by the terrorists. For what Bush has done is not
only revenge 9/11, say in Afghanistan (with mixed results), but acts,
as if in collusion with terrorists, to broadcast the very fear and terror
by which they seek to achieve their political goals

Alternative sources of energy will never be very
useful, for several reasons, but mainly because of a problem of "net
energy": the amount of energy output is not sufficiently greater
than the amount of energy input. Alternative sources simply don't have
enough "bang" to replace 30 billion annual barrels of oil

Like other forms of religious fundamentalism, Christian
fundamentalism is a dreaded doctrine of supremacy, a cult of hatred
and a recipe for disaster. And with an avowed born-again Christian at
the helm of affairs in America one shudders to think of what more brutalities
are in store for the world if Christian fundamentalism is allowed to
remain unchallenged

After living a life for ten decades the centurions
are normally expected to wait for the eternal journey, but in case of
Nawab Din who has lived little more than that an aspiration is still
coupled with a struggle. And interestingly his struggle has a loud message
for the peaceniks and diplomatic mandarins of New Delhi and Islamabad

Water is said to be a great leveler. But even the
ravaging flood waters which have created a havoc like situation in the
districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan just failed to crack
an age old structure - the walls between caste

Just after the judgement was delivered, employees
of coca cola company distributed press notes welcoming the judgement.
They also distributed cola to the assembled lawyers and journalists.
Advocate Ramakumar who represents the Perumatty Grama Panchayath where
the Coca Cola factory is situated alleged that the cola companies had
prior knowledge of the judgement

Present environment in India is reflecting the
spirit drawn from the fascist ideals. Some ardent believers are for
honest implementation. So, State, an oppressive power is slowly erasing
the rights of trade union. The freedom expression to voice against corporates
is being slowly chocked. Judiciary is speaking Liberalisation of economy
and curbing of labour rights

So next time you Catholics drop money into that
collection plate, you should wonder where your money is going. It seems
it is filling the same coffers and feeding the same ideologies of an
intransigent Bush administration. If this is the case, maybe people
should be asking the Pope for tolerance, rather than the Muslim world

But amid the rush to form a government, key questions
won't be laid to rest: Who will speak on behalf of the Palestinian people
internationally? Who will formulate their foreign-policy agenda? And
who will be entrusted with the task of defending or redefining their
national constants. Will it be Abbas, chairman of the PLO, or the elected
legislative council and government?

Faced with the evil designs of the “Islamic
fascists”, such as those in Iran, Israel’s nuclear arsenal
-- and the nuclear Holocaust Israel can and appears prepared to unleash
-- may be presented as the civilised world’s salvation

It is important to note that the board of directors
of AP is composed of 22 newspaper and media executives that include
the CEOs and presidents of ABC, McClatchy, Hearst, Tribune and the Washington
Post. Two of the directors are members of very conservative policy councils
that include the Hoover Institute. The Hoover Institute is a Republican
policy research center that has been referred to as "Bush's brain
trust." Its fellows include Condoleezza Rice and Newt Gingrich,
a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, along with George Shultz

Why not Mr. Musharaf (The President of Pakistan)
and Mr. Manmohan (The Prime Minister of India)? Who knows while transforming
Mr. Bush and Mr. Laden they also gets transformed to build a lasting
friendship based on trust and altruism in larger interest of the entire
humanity

Increasingly desperate over the deteriorating situation
in Iraq, the Bush administration is demanding that the US-installed
government in Baghdad support a savage intensification of repression
or give way to a dictatorial regime that will

We have summoned Bush by the incantation of our
hidden intentions; perhaps, if we were to awaken to the George W. Bush
concealed within, we might understand our own collaboration in creating
him – and then, at long last, we can begin the process of dismissing
him and all he represents

The failure of America's military could be explained
by the notion that failure is only what happens when you seek the wrong
success. A poorly-governed people, as Americans certainly are, keeps
being sent to wars in which they have no vital interest or commitment

The biggest news story of modern times rarely appears
in the conventional news media, or it appears only in distorted forms.
Ironically, the modern world is plagued by a lack of serious information.
What is most apparent is the larger problem that there is no leadership,
no sense of organization, for dealing with peak-oil issues

What lesson we can learn from Gandhi's life on
sexuality and sexual health? Was Gandhi a lustful human being? Did Gandhi
transform the sexual energy into spiritual and social energy? Did Gandhi
say "Kastuba is my mother"? Was Gandhi a faithful husband?
What makes Gandhi so strong, influential and powerful? Can we extract
some messages from the Gandhi's sexuality for today's youth for a healthier,
safer and happier lifestyle?

We ought to enjoy the display of excellence, creativity,
contests and challenges, which the game exemplifies, but be suspicious
of the emotions it ignites, the passions it arouses, and the ease with
which it has usurped native culture

The Phulbari project is a project of mass destruction
and genocide. The Phulbari people's verdict has sent the right signal
to the government and global corporate entities, and made it clear that
the people of Bangladesh will no longer tolerate plundering and impoverishment
in the name of FDI and the contracts signed without their knowledge
will not be accepted anymore

Sociologically, the incident of farmer suicides
in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra due to indebtedness is actually
the result of the combined effect of 'Relative deprivation' and 'Sudden
crises', which came in the category of anomic suicide. Significantly,
the feelings of relative deprivation are the outcome of the first green
revolution and these feelings has been augmented by the present market
policy of Globalization

The global sea level rise caused by climate change,
severely threatening many of the world's coastal and low-lying areas
from Bangladesh to East Anglia, is proceeding faster than UN scientists
predicted only five years ago

In one of the first major tests of carbon trading,
the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme which began on January
1, 2005, was labelled a “major disappointment” in an April
2006 assessment by the Climate Action Network-Europe as a result of
member governments setting lax national emission targets

No mistake, the Successor of Saint Peter, the Vicar
of Christ on Earth, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI has erred
and the damage is done: His anti-Islam remarks are out and cannot be
retracted, like bullets that cannot be retrieved once shot, adding a
Catholic stamp to the Evangelist “Islam versus the West”
justification for the U.S. neoconservative–led “WWIII on
Islam.”

The recent passing of a controversial bill by the
Gujarat Assembly has, understandably enough, generated a storm of protest.
Ironically called the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill 2006,
the Bill, critics argue, represents a major assault on religious freedom,
particularly of non-Hindus, in Gujarat

Even as the CBI, Mumbai police and governments
pat themselves on the back, and citizens demand death penalty for all
the Memons—four of the family have been convicted, three acquitted—there
has been no conviction in any of the thousands of cases registered during
and after the post-Babri riots from December 7, 1992, to January 21,
1993

Debates concerning the causes and consequences
of the war between Israel and Hezbollah have obscured the exact nature
and deep meaning of the conflict. A powerful and seemingly unimpeded
movement, that expanded a Zionist dream to the establishment of a state
and succeeded in rapid growth in size and population, has been halted.
This could be the end of the Zionist dream; a decisive moment in history

Israel is close to implementing a long-term plan
to transform the demographic structure of annexed East Jerusalem. Policies
to revoke the residency permits of Palestinian Jerusalemites and to
Judaise the city have been described as ethnic cleansing

Bush, with a straight face, tells us that he has
never authorized torture, and he thinks he can get away with that lie
because the public is mostly unaware that his administration has totally
altered the definition of "torture."

Until the United States can break its addiction
to oil, begin using alternative energy resources and stop its one-sided
relationship with Israel, no peace, stability or security will ever
be established for the Middle East or the United States

One wonders as to why Bangladesh has turned into
a dysfunctional democracy. It is also the most corrupt country, consecutively
for the last five years. It has virtually become an arena of political
rivalry between the successors of two dead patriarchs, Mujib and Zia.
They are competing against each other to run their own version of “democracy”
or dynastic oligarchy. Meanwhile, analysts differ if the country has
already turned into a “failed state”, or on the verge of
becoming one

Ever since the outbreak of militancy in Jammu and
Kashmir, several thousand children have been orphaned as a result of
the ongoing conflict in the region. The state has done little for these
children, who have, by and large, been left to their cruel fate. The
plight of orphaned girls is, obviously, even more precarious than that
of boys

Nayef Abu Snaima says his 14-year-old cousin Jihad
had been sitting on the edge of an olive grove talking animatedly to
him about what he would do when he grew up when he was killed instantly
by an Israeli shell

In the corridors of power in Jerusalem the cry
is going up: "Help! Peace is upon you, Israel!"A terrible
enemy is conspiring to impose peace on us. He is advancing against us
from two sides, in a giant pincer movement

Ziocon ~ a conflation of "Zionist" and
"Neocon." There's a distinction here that I'd like to make,
-there may be Zionists who are not Neocons, and there may be Neocons
who are not Zionists. I believe that the people who drew up this horrific
programme are both

"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither
does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything
remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all
must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become
unwitting victims of the darkness."

In a White House press conference Friday, and in
statements of government officials over the weekend, the Bush administration
has mounted a new campaign of lies and intimidation to justify the repudiation
of international law and a government policy of torture

We are living in a Ladakh marked by growing conflict,
both in terms of its frequency and intensity.I think the time has come
to ask ourselves what is at the roots of this conflict. From where are
all of these feelings of frustration, insecurity, anger, hatred, fear,
competition, and purposelessness coming from, and why are they continuously
getting channeled into our way of life

As of now the formal position vis-à-vis
the identity of the perpetrators is still unchanged. It could be Lashkar
or Bajrang Dal. It just means the roots and the perpetrators of the
bomb blasts in Malegaon on Shab-e-Barat could be traced to either the
Lashkar-ISI nexus or to the Bajrang Dal-Mossad connection

Was Benedict's most recent provocation accidental
or deliberate? The Bavarian is a razor-sharp reactionary cleric. A man
who organises his own succession to the Papacy with a ruthless purge
of potential dissidents and supervises the selection of Cardinals with
great care leaves little to chance.I think he knew what he was saying
and why

The war in Lebanon has not ended. Every day, some
of the million bomblets which were fired by Israeli artillery during
the last three days of the conflict kill four people in southern Lebanon
and wound many more

Where are our much-vaunted freedoms in the present
day United States? Are they, perhaps, hidden among the phantom oaks
of Oakdale Estates? Sadly, it appears, for a depressingly large percent
of our citizenry, the loss of our rights and liberties are missed and
remembered to the same extent as the felled trees of Oakdale Estates

Religion is the foundation for a superstitious
view of morality and a general state of intellectual dullness; this
ignorance in turn allows and often fosters the various master-slave
relationships that constitute modern capitalism

But considering the growing evidence pointing to
imminent peak oil dislocation and runaway global warming especially,
I still ask why is there no informed consideration and debate about
needed governance innovation beyond incremental change within the market
economy?

The latest string of E. Coli outbreaks should raise
serious questions about the vulnerability of our country’s food
supply. While most public health officials blame the cases on a violent
strain of noxious bacteria, the corporate food industry continues to
evade its due scrutiny

The US oil industry has conspicuously benefited
from the war in Iraq, at the expense of the lives tens of thousands
of Iraqis and the livelihoods of millions. Within the US, ordinary workers
are struggling with drastically higher retail gasoline and residential
fuel prices. Meanwhile, chief executives at the fifteen largest American
oil companies have received record pay in the years since the “war
on terror” was declared

The answer, in part, is to give up the use of money
well ahead of time, instead of letting the money economy claim more
victims. Barter would allow people to provide for their daily needs
on a local basis, without the dubious assistance of governments or corporations

The US-led aggression in the Middle East and the
three failed attempts to oust Venezuela's Hugo Chavez since 2002 (with
a fourth now planned and likely to be implemented soon) are just the
latest examples of this country's imperial agenda and the "new
world order" it has in mind

The rise now of China, Japan, Europe, and others
– India, Korea, and to some extent Russia and Brazil – means
the United States must be relatively diminished on the world stage,
much as an only child whose mother just gave birth to quintuplets

Family obligations, basic human needs, and the
extreme rarity of Horatio Alger successes leave the working class with
little choice but to submit to the ruling class to some extent.However,
We the People are not powerless. A measure of obedience may be unavoidable,
but whoredom is optional

The time is now ripe to build newer and stronger
bridges at different levels. By doing so, the flame of South consciousness
lighted by NAM’s stalwart founders will continue to burn bright
and keep providing an alternative platform for the South to progress

While every other thing is being highlighted and
the usual suspects are being further demonized through the hard work
of communal organizations and media, there is only a small section of
media and popular opinion which will bother to state that the organizations
like Bajrang Dal also need to be probed and put on the scanner

The melting of the sea ice in the Arctic, the clearest
sign so far of global warming, has taken a sudden and enormous leap
forward, in one of the most ominous developments yet in the onset of
climate change

Doesn't matter you're not bothered about it. Doesn't
matter you're thinking about your next holiday, or the state of your
marriage or the next Big Brother. This vast phenomenon that is going
to change the world unthinkably is coming right to your doorstep. A
lot sooner than you think

On 11 September 2001, while the world lamented
the deaths of almost 3,000 people in the United States, the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organisation reported that more than 36,000 children
had died from the effects of extreme poverty. They were very slow news

The Bush administration insists on spawning a third
world war and if a fundamental change of course doesn’t take place
immediately it will surely undermine America’s import, prestige
and perhaps global relevance

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s latest
visit to Tehran was just another occasion to highlight that Iran is
compromising its Arab credentials in Iraq, and to raise more questions
about whether Tehran and Washington are in collusion or in collision
in Baghdad

For its entire existence, Israel has been portrayed
as a “civilised” society with Western “liberal democratic
principles”, defended by “heroic” army. This Israel,
however, is a fabricated subject, rather than a reality. It is built
on a fiction

Bias against Muslims is deeply-rooted in large
sections of the Hindu-owned media in India, even in influential sections
of the English press that prides itself in its claim of being 'secular'
and 'progressive'. Two ongoing controversies-the Vande Mataram affair
and the Malegaon bomb blasts-suffice to confirm this argument

The most important lesson, which should be remembered,
is that the law and order machinery should be even handed in its approach
in unearthing the truth. It should not repeat its earlier folly of stigmatizing
the whole community, which it is alleged to have engaged in after the
Bombay blasts. It should also not be seen going soft on Hindu militant
formations for fear of providing political capital to Hindutva organizations

An Indian has to defend the secular values of the
country and believe in fair play. A country denying dignity and right
to its minorities cannot remain peaceful and would rarely progress if
it alienates its second majority, the Muslims

Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian
enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here
on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that
is being ignored because the world's attention has been diverted by
wars in Lebanon and Iraq

The measure of a human rights organisation is to
be found not just in the strides it takes to seek justice for the oppressed
and victimised but also in the compromises it makes to keep itself out
of trouble. Unfortunately, one of the best -- Human Rights Watch --
has failed that test during the war in Lebanon this summer

If the independent movement of the working class
of Israel linked up with the Lebanese workers, and joined together with
the potentially powerful working class of the Middle East, the prospects
for another conflagration in the area would be banished, once and for
all

Now, as we reflect on the fifth anniversary of
9/11 and remember what it is like to be the victims of a murderous attack,
we have before us a solemn peace mission that remains tragically unaccomplished.
It is time to forget Paris Hilton and remember Roesio Salem. It’s
time to end the Iraq War and occupation. There will never be a better
time

The official August 12 start of Venezuela’s
presidential election campaign has opened a new phase in Washington’s
plans to destabilise the revolutionary government headed by socialist
President Hugo Chavez

A Bush Administration insider, Flint Leverett,
who served in the CIA, State Department and Bush White House, in a virtual
indictment of Mid-East policy, described how America’s standing
is in decline in the region, not only US popularity but how America
is perceived. The United States is more and more seen as ineffective
and unable to accomplish its objectives. The decline of the United States
is occurring at a disturbing pace

As Bush continues his illegal war in Iraq and the
military men keep telling him he will not have enough troops to proceed
unless he institutes the military draft, he continues to offend returning
veterans

So! The battle-lines are drawn. For November '06
and November '08. The mighty blitz of the Bush Party has begun, buttressed
with lots and lots of loot. Can they bury the Dean Party with big bucks,
plus the bully pulpit?

The U.S. military has lost control over the volatile
al-Anbar province, Iraqi police and residents say. The area to the west
of Baghdad includes Fallujah, Ramadi and other towns that have seen
the worst of military occupation, and the strongest resistance

The kidnapping episode will certainly be milked
for all its worth – while the deliberate targeting of the two
Reuters journalists by the Israeli army will hardly register for more
than a day or two as a fleeting and extraneous piece of news

The Palestinians have been too grateful and too
helpless for too long to be critical of the political agenda of their
donors who have practically nailed them down as political hostages to
the donors’ money, which was promised initially to help build
an independent Palestinian state, but ended as a political instrument
effectively used by the Israeli occupying power

There has been no shortage of punditry when it
comes to the current crisis in the Middle East, however most of the
published and broadcast voices have been male. If there is to be any
hope of a sustainable peace in this region it is critically important
to also listen to what women are saying

Almost all the discussion of climate change up
to now has been about "mitigation" - in other words, how to
prevent it from happening. But prevention, although important, is not
enough. Climate change is going to happen, and we need to think more
about adapting to it

The arrest of an editor of an eveninger from Surat,
Gujarat charging him with ‘anti-national activities’ including
‘instigating people against a duly elected government’ has
once again brought into sharp focus the way freedom of expression can
be easily trampled with impunity by the powers that be

In an attempt at even-handedness, Fisk has also
muddied the picture in relation to the actions of Hizbullah and thereby
contributed towards the very mythical narratives he seeks to undermine.This
was done by repeatedly accusing the Shiite militia of both provoking
the war with Israel and intending Lebanon’s destruction. Uncharacteristically,
Fisk failed to offer us the evidence on
which these conclusions were based

Doctors in Gaza are reporting what they say are
unexplained injuries among the dead and wounded in operations by the
Israeli military, which have killed more than 200 Palestinians in the
past nine weeks

The rapid rise in greenhouse gases over the past
century is unprecedented in at least 800,000 years, according to a study
of the oldest Antarctic ice core which highlights the reality of climate
change

The Chicago Tribune offered the most callous interpretation
of the disaster. It opened its lead article on the disaster by pinning
blame squarely on the family itself, stating, “Using candles for
light ...was a dangerous decision that proved to be deadly early Sunday.”
The Tribune does not ask why a family with two working adults should
be without power in the first place

A genocide is taking place in Gaza. This morning,
2 September, another three citizens of Gaza were killed and a whole
family wounded in Beit Hanoun. This is the morning reap, before the
end of day many more will be massacred. An average of eight Palestinian
die daily in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. Most of them are children.
Hundreds are maimed, wounded and paralyzed

Napolean won the battle of Waterloo. The German
Wehrmacht won World War II. The United States won in Vietnam, and the
Soviets in Afghanistan. The Zealots won against the Romans, and Ehud
Olmert won the Second Lebanon War.You didn't know that? Well, during
the last few days the Israeli media has paraded a long series of experts,
who did not leave any room for doubt: the war has brought us huge achievements,
Hizbullah was routed, Olmert is the great victor

"But what is the American-Muslim identity?"
al-Marati asks. "Our religious values and our American values are
not incompatible. There is no dissonance between the founding principles
of America and Muslim values. Unless we have this identity, we will
be trapped. We will end up creating Muslim ghettoes in America."

Perhaps our lives and our planet were meant for
something better, simpler, more peaceful. If not for us, perhaps for
our children. Perhaps at some point before we go too far, our consciousness
may be awakened. It may be a forlorn hope but miracles occasionally
happen

Remember that the human species has already caused
the premature extinction of many of Earth’s inhabitants. If we
humans do not collectively change our values, we humans could be the
next species to disappear

The coming Connecticut election is a real test
of the present power of the Lobby. If Lieberman wins in November, it
will show to other aspiring candidates for public office that the Lobby,
although wounded, remains an unassailable force within the realm of
the national political arena. If he loses, it may encourage others to
come out of the closet and speak out about the baleful effects the Lobby
is having over the workings of our Republic

Writing from my great love for all my sisters and
brothers and cousins and sons and daughters in the Semitic family, at
this hour of bloodshed and despair, I call you to open your eyes and
your hearts now, today, and see what has been hidden from you - right
before your eyes

Blair's convenient and equally simplistic division
of Islam into reactionary and moderate moulds has reminded many Muslims
of the binary approach since 9/11 of seeing them as "good Muslims
and bad Muslims". Blair is not the only to leap for this reductionist
syllogism

In a broader perspective, communalism of polity
is preliminary to fascism of polity. In today’s context it is
not mere communalism of polity, rather it is the fascism of state under
the Hindutva brigade is what is ongoing in India. Hence as an activist
working with Dalits, and also associated with some of the Adivasi movements,
I would like to emphasis some of the major threats faced by the Dalits
and Adivasis or Indigenous people

The state of California is embarking on a ground-breaking
effort to curb global warming, following an agreement between Arnold
Schwarzenegger, the state's movie star Republican Governor, and the
Democrat-dominated state legislature, to cut greenhouse gas emissions
by 25 per cent by 2020

The mayors of more than 300 cities across the country
have signed a Climate Protection Agreement in which they have pledged
to meet the emissions-cutting timetable laid down by the Kyoto Protocol
- regardless of what the Bush administration decides

I am very doubtful about the future of the human
animal. This same animal, which is by far the most vicious killer to
walk the planet, not only kills millions of his own species every year,
but also kills and devours millions of other species. He destroys the
habitat of most of the other living creatures on the planet, and he
is so stupid that he destroys his own environment

Unexploded Israeli cluster munitions dropped during
the 34-day war in Lebanon have killed at least 13 civilians and wounded
50 since the ceasefire took effect on August 14. About 100,000 unexploded
cluster bomblets litter the country, preventing large numbers of people
from returning to their homes

A clue where Israel might be heading next emerged
this week when Olmert’s trusted international ambassador, Shimon
Peres, “revealed” that Iran is trying to transfer its nuclear
know-how to terrorist organisations. Peres did not name Hizbullah but
it is only time before the link is made and a new casus belli established

As the dust from the rubble of Lebanon's ruined
cities, villages, and infrastructure settles, and as bodies of victims
are recovered and buried, and the human losses mourned by the people
of Lebanon, serious questions are being raised about India's increasingly
cozy relationship with Israel

Only time will tell what Pakistani junta will take
the lesson from this misadventure of the killing of Bugti . But what
will the Indian state is going to get lesson from this killing? That
is the real big question